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History of Hannam Vale ~ Mid North Coast NSW AustraliaJames Cook may not have known that a fertile green valley lay between South Brother and Middle Brother mountains when he sailed up the NSW mid north coastline in 1770; nor would he been likely to have known that the name "three brothers" had been ascribed to the area centuries earlier by the local Aboriginal community. His voyage, however, did lead to the establishment of a British penal colony in Sydney Cove in 1788, and thirty years later, to John Oxley, the colony's Surveyor-General opening up the Hasting and Manning Valleys for settlement.Hannam Vale is on the "border" between these two valleys; between what are now the local government shires of Hastings Council and Greater Taree City Council. After John Oxley's visit, it didn't take long for the timber cutters, in search of red cedar, to push their way north and find Stewarts River and the thickly wooded valley that was to become known as Hannam Vale. The first recorded selection of land was taken up by Thomas Crossingham in the Stewarts River area in1866. G.A Scott chose a block of 40 acres in 1873 where the Cowan dairy farm now stands and couldn't fulfil the conditions of purchase, so the block was regazetted in 1886 and purchased by J. H. Lambert. The first permanent settler in the valley was John Haydon who purchased 50 acres along the Stewarts River in 1882. Haydon's son Bill was born in 1890 and became known as the 'Cedar King'. He was the first timber getter in the area to use a converted truck as a hauler during the 1930s. George Pullen bought 39 acres from the cedar cutters and settled at Upper Stewarts River clearing his land and growing crops of maize, arrowroot, potatoes and vegetables. Like all the early settlers he also planted a variety of fruit trees, especially oranges. Settlers with names such as Sheather, Brewer, Buttsworth, Redman, Lambert, Powell, Watts, Ward, Mooney, Joyce and Holden moved into the valley and began growing crops, clearing land for pasture, grazing cattle and a start was made on dairying. According to the records Hannam Vale received its name from Francis Redman who operated the receiving office for mail in the area. He had named his own property Hannam Vale and when he found that "Upper Stewarts River" would not fit on the mail stamp, he gave the valley the same name as his property. He was instrumental in having the Hannam Vale School's first married teacher Charles Powell appointed by providing a residence on his property. Redman's wife, Naomi, not only raised eleven children of her own, she was also the district midwife. Francis Redmond's son Bill provided a half acre block of land on which the Hannam Vale Community Hall was erected and he served as the first secretary of the Hannam Vale Hall Management Committee. Hannam Vale's annual show as well as any sporting fixtures took place for many years on what is now known as the Recreational Reserve resplendent as it then was with stands and stalls - long since gone, though the current Recreational Reserve Trust is looking at ways to develop the area once more as a picnic and sporting area. William Holden had a draught horse team and later a bullock team which he used to clear his property to start the valley's first dairy farm. Like other pioneers, he also grew his own vegetables, raised chickens and had a variety of fruit trees. Around 1900, James Buttsworth left his teaching job and began dairy farming on his father's property which was bound by Deep Creek and Stewarts River. He named it 'Nellie View' and established a substantial orchard. Ten years before he had sold a block of 2 acres to the Department of Education, a site which subsequently became the site of the Hannam Vale school and playground. Around the same time the Steinmetz family began extensive log clearing and milling in Upper Hannam Vale - the area ultimately to become Old Mill village and now Waitui. The extensive cleared area served as pasture for the bullock teams that the Steinmetz operated to take their logs to the market. By the mid 1930's the larger Hannam Vale area - embracing Stewarts River, Hannam Vale and Waitui had become primarily an area where dairy farming and extensive logging were the principal commercial interests of the valley. This subsequent concentration on dairy farming is the basis of the lush green - almost English - look to the landscape of the present time. In the mid Twentieth Century the entire area supported two primary schools - one [now defunct] at Waitui (on the corner of what is now Steinmetz Close and Waitui Road) with 30 students and one at Hannam Vale "proper" with 60 students which is still in existence at about the same size. As dairy farming became less productive and less attractive as a capital investment in the years after the end of the Second World War, more and more people began to use the valley for residential purposes either working close by or "commuting" to Taree, Laurieton or Port Macquarie. More recently following the deregulation of the dairy industry in 2001, a number of the older dairy farms have closed; this has been closely associated with growing numbers of "city folk" purchasing smaller lots for hobby farming as they escape from the stresses of city life either on a full or part-time basis. The essential character of the valley remains with its lush green pasture reflecting its long dairying history and the generally high rainfall common to this southern part of what is called sub-tropical New South Wales. The "epicentre" of the wider Hannam Vale area is the few acres at the junction of Hannam Vale Road and deep Creek Road just ten minutes from the Highway at Johns River or Moorland. The most obvious features of this central locality are the Public School, General Store and the Salvation Army Chapel and Community Centre. The primary school was first established as a one-teacher "provisional" school in 1899. It was afforded permanent status and its original buildings erected in 1907; since then a number of other buildings have been added for a variety of purposes. Most recently a small building used as a church in Waitui was donated by the Cross family to the School and is now used as a "community" centre including library services. The Public School is well known throughout the wider Mid North Coast for the legend on its school gate portal: "Through this gate walk the nicest people in the world". Opposite the Public School is the Hannam Vale General Store. Built in 1927 the store is the day-by-day "social centre" of the wider Hannam Vale area with its constant stream of school children weekdays and its café providing a meeting place for adults after work seven days a week. Just east of the Public School is the Bush Fire Brigade meeting room and further east again, off Hannam Vale Road, is the entrance way to the Hannam Vale Recreational Reserve. Just two to three hundred metres to the north-west of the School on Hannam Vale Road is the Hannam Vale Community Hall the home of community meetings in the area as well as special events such a bush dances, art shows and other fund raising activity. Around the corner from the Public School in Deep Creek Road is the original Salvation Army Chapel and newly built Community Hall and the Hannam |
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